Voters elected political newcomer Pete Flores to the Texas Senate on Tuesday, flipping a Democratic district red for the first time in 139 years and bolstering Republicans’ supermajority in the chamber ahead of the November elections.

A retired game warden, Flores defeated former state and U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego for the Senate District 19 seat after receiving backing from some of the state’s most prominent politicians, including Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and U.S. Sens John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.

[...]According the Secretary of State’s website, Flores won with 53 percent of the vote to Gallego’s 47 percent with 44,487 ballots cast.

Flores and Gallego competed in Tuesday’s runoff after emerging from an eight-candidate field in first- and second-place, respectively, in July’s special election to replace former Sen. Carlos Uresti. The longtime lawmaker vacated his seat in June after being convicted of 11 felony charges.

In his victory speech, Flores reflected about the historic significance of his win and the job ahead.

“This district has not been Republican since Reconstruction. And in September of 2018, it’s Republican once again,” Flores told supporters. “The work starts tomorrow.”

[...]The last Republican to hold the seat was Andrew Phelps McCormick. According to the Legislative Library of Texas, he left office in 1879.

It was predicted that Gallego, who represented large swaths of the 19th Senate District in both Congress and the state House of Representatives, would sweep to victory in the runoff given the Democrat's voter registration advantage. The former congressman confirmed as much during an interview with San Antonio Express-News in August.

"Just empirically, it's a Democratic district. Assuming we do our job of getting Democrats out to vote, we win in the end," Gallego said at the time.

Indeed, it appears Gallego's candidacy failed to energize a sufficient portion of the Democratic base. Overall, turnout was proportionally higher in the district's Republicans areas than in heavily Democratic strongholds such as urban Bexar County, home to San Antonio, according to the Texas secretary of state's office.

Gallego's loss was surprising given that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton carried the district by nearly 12 percentage points in 2016, while Uresti defeated Flores by 15 points to secure re-election. [...]

Flores's win bolsters the standing of Republicans in the Texas Senate. Currently, the GOP has a supermajority within the chamber allowing it to bring legislation to the floor for a vote without any Democratic support. With Flores assuming the remainder of Uresti's term, which isn't scheduled to end until 2021, the GOP is likely to keep its supermajority, regardless of the outcome this November as there are few competitive seats in contention.

We need to keep this momentum going. Show up for the midterms and vote Republican no matter what. As President Trump warned evangelical leaders in a closed door meeting in late August, the Democrats are going to turn violent.

"The level of hatred, the level of anger is unbelievable," Trump said. "Part of it is because of some of the things I've done for you and for me and for my family, but I've done them. … This Nov. 6 election is very much a referendum on not only me, it's a referendum on your religion, it's a referendum on free speech and the First Amendment."

"It's not a question of like or dislike, it's a question that they will overturn everything that we've done and they will do it quickly and violently," Trump said. "There is violence. When you look at Antifa -- these are violent people."

The left's total hysteria will be their undoing. The average American needs to realize these rabid leftists want to throw open our borders, replace our electorate with foreigners, censor our internet, shut down all our websites and subject everyone who voted for Trump to a show trial.

Trump Derangement Syndrome has now advanced to its sufferers having weird fever dreams about ways in which to punish Trump supporters. https://t.co/NzvnG1f8zA